Greek Salad With Crispy Pita
This is a mash-up of two traditional Mediterranean salads. It gets its primary flavors from a Greek salad, with feta, scallion, dried oregano and plenty of cucumber and tomato in a lemon-olive oil dressing. And it owes its hearty crunch to a Middle Eastern fattoush, a salad that originated as a way to use up day-old pita and involves tossing shards of the toasted flatbread with dressed crisp greens, vegetables and herbs.
In the interest of keeping the kitchen cool on a hot summer day, the recipe uses store-bought pita chips rather than pita bread toasted in the oven. The salad makes for a satisfying lunch or light dinner, but it's also nice as part of a mezze spread -- with hummus, roasted vegetables, olives and stuffed grape leaves, for example.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon finely grated zest and 2 tablespoons juice from 1 lemon
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1/2 large head romaine lettuce, leaves torn into bite-size pieces (about 5 cups lightly packed)
- 2 cups lightly packed baby spinach leaves
- 1/2 large English (seedless) cucumber, cut in half lengthwise, then thinly sliced into half-moons
- 1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes, each cut in half
- 1/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
- 1 scallion (white and green parts), thinly sliced
- 4 ounces feta cheese, crumbled (1 cup)
- 2 ounces whole-wheat pita chips (about 24), broken into pieces
Directions
Step 1
Whisk together the oil, the lemon zest and juice, oregano, salt and pepper in a medium bowl to form a dressing.
Step 2
Toss together the lettuce, spinach, cucumber, tomatoes, parsley and scallion in a large serving bowl. Add the feta, the toasted pita chips and the dressing. Toss well to coat and incorporate; serve right away.